Homewood Community Frustrated, Searching For Answers After Latest Shooting
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Police are hoping to make an arrest soon in a shooting last weekend at a club in Homewood. Two people were killed there Sunday.
At a community gathering Thursday, people in the community were at odds over where the shooting happened, and what should be done to make things safer.
For years, the building at North Homewood Avenue and Kelly Street was known as the purple church, and then it was the Diverse Banquet Hall.
But now, it's turned into the tragic place where two people were killed early Sunday morning.
Emotions were high Thursday afternoon outside the Diverse Banquet Hall.
The current tenant who runs the banquet hall and previous tenants squared off outside the building to address the recent shootings, and the need for the community to join together and stop the violence.
There just wasn't a lot of agreement on how to do it.
"We now need to ask anyone who may have information about these two people who were killed to come forward," said Pastor Karl Edmonds, an activist. "It's your time."
"If they don't know what's going on in that building then they should be out here talking about it," added Terry Fluker, the owner of the banquet hall.
Jasmine Morris, 21, and Demetrius Broadnax, 27, were shot and killed early Sunday morning while attending a private party in the lower level of the banquet hall, an area used primarily by the New Brotherhood Bikers Group.
Pittsburgh police say, so far, no one has been arrested. And that is most likely the heart of the frustration in the community; another shooting and no arrests in a community that seems plagued by violence.
"At the end of the day, we've got babies lying dead in the street. You know we've got people being shot up innocently. We don't need that," said Pa. Rep. Ed Gainey. "Homewood-Brushton has never been about that; it's been a place of love."
The community would like to see that happen again, beginning with someone coming forward with information about last weekend's shooting.
RELATED LINKS:
Homewood Shooting Leaves 2 Dead, At Least 4 Injured (10/20/13)
More Homewood News
More Reports by Lynne Hayes-Freeland
